fiddlemcwiddle wrote:
I have very similar problem - if FCPX has to render or share or what have you it seems to almost stop if the application is in the background (ie,, if you have made a project and waiting for it to share so your on safari) it seems to go VERY slowly, and uses only a small percentage of the CPU. As soon as you bring FCPX to the foreground the percentage CPU used jumps to 2-300% and the whole process speeds up.
Would turning background render off or setting a long time delay help this?
No - this is a different issue. I bet you are using Mavericks. Mavericks introduced a feature called "App Nap" that reduces power consumption and devotes more resources to the foreground application by "napping" any apps in the background. This is something you DON'T want with FCP X, but it is easy to fix.
In the Finder, go the Applications folder (Cmd-Shift-A will open this folder automatically for you); select the Final Cut Pro icon; hit Cmd-I (this opens the "Get Info" window); check the box that says "Prevent App Nap".
Note: this is likely to be a transient situation, as the current version of FCP X dates back from before the Mavericks introduction; newer applications are supposed to inform the OS that they don't want to nap.